How to increase the number of animals that get adopted into good homes is a question I know keeps you up at night.

I can't quantify the admiration I have for your ongoing efforts and optimism.

You try to be creative with your communications. You try discounting. You try to take advantage of media opportunities. You try to create more community awareness and responsibility. You advertise your pets in every venue you know of. You tell sad stories. You tell happy stories. You network with others like you. You reach out in every direction and then you live and breathe - you directly witness - the consequences of every success and every failure. I can’t quantify the admiration I have for your ongoing efforts and optimism in the face of what seems to me, as an onlooker, adversity that should paralyze. Instead, you mobilize.

We can share insights and resources that will help you become better marketers.

As a marketing manager for Purina the world I work in is much different than yours. I’ve thought long and hard about what we can offer above and beyond providing food and monetary donations and this is what I think we can bring to the table. Purina is the largest and most successful pet food company in the United States. This means we are very good at marketing. Being a very good marketer means knowing how to increase demand for your product. I think, over a period of time, we can share insight and resources that will help you become better marketers too with the desired result being an increase in demand for shelter pets.

Successful marketing...can help find more homes for shelter pets.

I won’t say this is the solution. Your world is complicated. There are a lot of factors at play and dynamics that I try to understand. But I do know that successful marketing positively impacts demand and I truly believe it can help find more homes for shelter pets. Check out the information and resources we currently have to offer at www.meettherealme.org and let us know what you think. We’ll rely on our marketing smarts — and you — to guide us.